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Opinion Journal: Bomb First, Plan Later

Matthew Kaminski of the editorial board explains America's role in the Libyan campaign.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... is the problem worse when Twitter for the United States it would be ... there to answer the question is recommends guarantor a board member Matt thanks for being here ... and it's ... the ... looking at this level jury of operation at this moment but it seems like it ... we didn't tell this point it was in charge of mean is there a ... has been made clear by either a European governments are our government the hotels where planes to fly ... and when the bombs stop ... nobody even Robert Gates yesterday said well he has done it at the onthe on the fly in Lido ... City walk down in coming days will quiet and Markel admission head of the American ... military bad that we'll have a ... HSAs we have the of ... in place a clear command and control structure ... with its core mission ... in some ways has become so sideshows to what's going on over Libya and in the disguise yourself ... to pull a sideshow in Europe now over who was going to be putting this down the road ... on ... we can quite legitimately say the public needed to be in charge ... the Brits and what needed to be in charge ... of the Turks are now back in action ... in the country stopping this defect if they want to be in charge ... and an advance of NATO's Bittner out tickets to the folks is the essence of NATO ... so odd that the stock goes to push this we want to get the credit is due to Eeco ... lie ... I wish ... this is not to suggest that ... it's not going well militarily ... just shut down of Libyan airplane ... no-fly zone is something that we're capable of ... enforcing an art forcing the bombing ... but it's close to a bigger problem which is basically we're have clear goals ... for how this is going to have read ... and has a very confusing statements from various American officials of what the end goal in its ... response a walk outs of civilian stop ... OK fine but obviously ... our present call that ... said the ... Ghadafi must go somewhere ... so are we going to do what it takes to get out of there ... is that when this whole mission ends ... and if you don't have a computer and military leadership ... that says that you normally have clear political leadership here ... and that even ... and the military ... usually ... you know every ... job you get them to do be doing very well ... the US is doing most of the heavy lifting of the Week product and it would actually ... the ones in the mean ... we are ... on but because there is no clear political vision for how successfully the warding ... it is more in network ... as you said the military will love ... it is unlikely to achieve whatever objective we did ... what is the mission we should ... admission is basically we ... have to do everything possible to ... take Ghadafi ... we cannot allow Ghadafi staying power is in our national ... and in the Europeans national security interests ... for there to be of regime change in the fall was the phrase regime change is a dirty phrase thirsty for a Democratic administration that followed ... the Bush administration ... on that doesn't mean the witches of Invidi Libya with with the Marines as it is ... two hundred years ago ... it means the wheel of ... the building of pursue a very several bust ... the ... campaign ... we are with the rebels probably ... going to work on the ground with special forces me to make contacts with the rebels in what these ... guys because and ... I get a remarkable thing that ... Robert Gates is that we have some contacts to ... the ambassador that the fact that ... I would I want to hope that we have better contacts and then we probably will work closely with the rules have to choose targets ... you do wonders for the spouses can work out you're saying that doesn't require up with some of the euro ... Meier puts in the gutters are what is your drops fell this I don't look so from that sector that is about more ... recently and not ... surprisingly this ... he said would you favor despite ... what we've seen in recent years ... is basically ... going in the invading countries where there's a problem ... blowing stuff up getting rid of the regime of meddling ... Borders is should that be the plan here or is this gonna be ... a new nation building even if we go into the thousands can end up being a one-term that well I think this means ... that the a nation that size at some point I mean ... we have bought ... um ... the model should not be Iraq is not you a ... better model actually is possible ... when he was in charge who surrendered their campaign over seventy days ... doing came in with a ... very largest peacekeeping force ... that could stay for long time but no one got hurt we ... have eighty odd Caso costs of our democracy now which is a more or less functioning state ... in Europe ... on there probably may have to be a peacekeeping component or some sort of transitional arrangements ... where are we ... the international community the UN Security Council whatever phrase makes ... are the current US government Constable ... will have to take a ... role on a ... leading role in ... these are jobs really just have to think that ... because no one's in charge noise during the fourth began wrestling heeded the warning legacy from Iraq enormous the key ... to three months down the road after weekend in March well ... I think what the ... president ... has probably got me going to be worried about is ... not sure how long Americans of project elitists look like you're going to ... tolerate a ... thirty four ... with access ... to